Hey, there! Log in / Register
Evans: Bomb threat on Congress Street yesterday shows why BPD needs authority to patrol the Seaport
By adamg on Mon, 06/22/2015 - 12:41pm
Police Commissioner William Evans said today a bomb threat at 505 Congress St. proved the perfect - and fortunately harmless - example of why it's absurd Boston Police aren't supposed to respond to calls from land owned by Massport in South Boston:
A call came in for a bomb threat at 505 Congress St. Despite the jurisdictional limit, BPD officers, including the bomb squad, responded immediately - then had to wait 15 minutes for State Police to show up - he told a City Council committee today.
Evans said his officers responded even though they legally shouldn't because when lives might be on the line, he's not going to let bureaucratic issues get in the way.
Evans testified at a City Council hearing, called by at-large Councilor Steve Murphy, on a proposal to give Boston Police the same sort of shared jurisdiction it has with State Police along Morton Street and Gallivan Boulevard.
As it has done every year for several years now, the state legislature is currently considering a bill that would grant BPD the ability to respond to the Seaport, land that was once just docks and parking lots, but which is now home to thousands of residents and workers.
Unlike Boston Police, State Police did not show up at the hearing.
Evans said State Police are very good at their main skills - patrolling highways and parks - but Boston Police should be in charge of community policing, including domestic and sexual assault, in the city's fastest growing neighborhood. He said cell towers in the area are designed to forward 911 calls to State Police headquarters in Framingham - which can mean potentially life-threatening delays for fire or emergency-medical calls.
Boston Police, he continued, are experts in community policing. "That's what we do for a living," he said. "There's no need for the State Police doing that. We have the resources, and we're very good at it."
Evans added that when large brawls or other problems break out, BPD has the resources to get 50 officers to the scene within minutes. In contrast, State Police have to call in troopers from as far away as the western part of the state, he said.
It's very disconcerting that Seaport residents "pay city property taxes and they don't get city police services," he said.
Evans added he is tired of reading State Police complaints that the annual push by Boston is just about paid details. He said BPD already gets more detail requests than it can fill; it doesn't need more.
He warned that the problem will grow in coming years - not just because the Seaport is expanding, but because Massport is now leasing land in Charlestown and East Boston, which will be subject to the same bar on BPD jurisdiction.
A Massport security official said things are fine in the Seaport and the law is the law. If anything, he said, BPD should be more diligent in forwarding 911 calls over traditional land lines to State Police.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Bring back the METS !!!
Bring back the METS !!!
God No
Bring back the mildly developmentally disabled version of the Staties? Please, please no.
Tough guy park police were the Mets. Too much focus on Greater Boston which led to Billy from Meffa getting on the Mets as a political favor to a sign holder over the more geographic spread of the State Police. What do you want to bring back next, the Registry Police?
That being said, BPD should have control of Seaport. It is Boston. It is a local issue. Massport (You know the ones with the hand scanner security station with a Herald machine next to it in their Airport office building), does own a lot of land in South Boston, but I really, really don't see the "Port" uses of Jerry Remy's, Manulife, WB Mason, and all those apartments.
BPD and the Staties are good organizations for the most part, but let the Staties yell at people at Logan and leave the rest to the locals.
He said BPD already gets more
Then I suppose when the issue of using civilian flagmen comes up again Comissioner Evans will more than happily support that as well, right?
Flag men?
Paid details put an extra few hundred police on the streets daily - paid for by private construction companies and a portion goes to the city. Police on the streets doing details have prevented crime or apprehended criminals countless times, crimes that would have not been stopped or slowed by your civilian flag men. On top of that, flag men end up costing the construction companies more per hour due to union fees, benefits; etc than a police officer does.
Anyone who supports civilian flag men does not possess common sense to understand more police on the streets at any time is a good thing.
That's a great point
I'm sure the three cops that were standing across my quiet street from the NStar crew's lunch break this weekend were actually sending text messages of vital crimefighting importance.
And since I, as an untrained civilian, can stand at a bus stop for four minutes and see a dozen people run red lights or text while driving or nearly get into accidents, I can only imagine how many times detail cops see similar infractions and rush to intercept the offenders.
And even if I believed any of the above, why do you suppose it is that literally every other state in the country can make do with civilians or even orange barrels to direct traffic?
Commissioner Evans
Commissioner Evans again showing what leadership looks like, unlike the stuffed shirt that signs his checks.
When the mayor isn't
When the mayor isn't straitjacketing Evans to kowtow to politics he sure is one helluva commissioner.
Now, now...
He's the best Mayah money can buy!
He said cell towers in the
Actually, all 911 calls dialed from a cell phone, regardless of where they originate from, are routed to the State Police headquarters in Framingham. The dispatcher then routes the call to the appropriate community police department or State Police barracks.
Wasn't that trying to change in some areas?
I vaguely remember a push to at least get more local routing of 911 calls from cell phones, but I forget where that might have happened (western Mass maybe?) and if it even happened at all.
911 routing
I have a vague recollection of this too, but as of the last time I was involved with this issue (5+ years ago), what roadman has stated was correct.
I think that the "hang-up" (sorry) was how to decide which towers would route directly to the local 911 answering point. For example, no one wanted to create a situation where someone close to a municipal boundary had a call picked up by a tower that pointed to the adjacent municipality's answering point. This was, however, before GPS was what it is today (that making it possible to have a caller based, rather than tower based system), but there was also a concern about accommodating non-smartphone mobile users.
Yes
If you have Google Maps/Google Now installed on your phone and you want to see why this is an issue, google "Google Maps Location History" and login with your Gmail password. It shows a map of everywhere you've been that day, according to the GPS.
Mine frequently shows that I spend my day a full mile east of my work, because we're in a semi-dead zone between cell towers and my office is also a company wi-fi deadzone. The tower a mile east of me is the closest one, therefore, I must be there. It used to get confused at my old work and think I was hanging out three blocks away, in the middle of an eight-lane highway.
This could be really dangerous in an emergency, when you are trying to call Boston 911 but your phone is adamant that you're treading water in the middle of the Charles, three inches over the Cambridge line.
That's changing
In Boston, 911 calls go directly to BPD dispatchers now
MSP
No, the article was correct. Cell tower infrastructure is programed to send calls to different 911 centers. Most in Boston go directly to BPD. Old technology sent all call to one state dispatch center but that changed about a decade or so ago.
BostonCellphone 911 calls
Wrong. Boston has handled its own wireless 911 calls since 2012.
When I'm elected governor
First act is to disband the Massachusetts State Police. I'll reallocate their budget back to the cities and towns to hire former MSP troopers as they see fit.
It's a good point to bring up
It's a good point to bring up the shared jurisdiction of roads like Gallivan blvd and Morton street. Let the quickest responder take the call, then hand it over to the "authority" if there is an investigation. There's no reason Southie and downtown district BPD shouldn't respond if they can get there quicker.
Why are Gallivan Blvd and
Why are Gallivan Blvd and Morton Street shared with the State Police? I hadn't realized that.
They're technically state roads
It's a similar issue along the VFW and West Roxbury parkways (although I think the origins might be different - the parkways came out of the old MDC; anybody know the story behind Gallivan and Morton?).
Gallivan and Morrissey were MDC Roads
Morton probably gets coverage being a state road and running from Gallivan to the Arborway.
The odd one is Columbia Road. It is not a state road, and it is a stretch to call it a parkway, though it was part of the Olmsted plan. That said, the Staties have jurisdiction over the road, but the BPD handles everything else. I do know that a state rep used to live on the road, but the family was none too happy that the road was under state control.
In the end, politicians got the designation for the roads most likely.
I Thought these guys had
I Thought these guys had jurisdiction over The Seaport/Fort Point?
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/missing-bricks-fort-point-replaced-smal...
Nobody cared who patrolled it
Nobody cared who patrolled it when it was all warehouses before they built it up, but no its not about the money ya right . can't we all get along
Evans Seaport Lies "The Movie"- Part 4
MORE LIES and misinformation from the commish, I have to give you credit though, YOU ACTUALLY SAY THIS STUFF WITH A STRAIGHT FACE !!! .....for the record commish the Mass SP were on scene contemperanously to the Boston PD ( that means at about the same time). Just to educate you commish.... you should learn more about our department, over 15,000 men and women take our entrance exam, those selected go to a very tough academy with real courses. As a department we investigate murders (with real guns), armed robberies, assaults, domestics, larcenies, sexual assaults, drug distribution, gun crimes, computer crimes, corruption, we have the largest gang unit in the state, we have helicopters, horses, boats, swat team, search and rescue teams, crime scene services, ballistics,and we do investigate ART THEFT (if you need assistance)..... and yes as you so often like to point out we patrol the highways (very well by the way). Much to your chagrin we are not the Highway Patrol, I don't think that's gonna change. Even your own guys say that you are being, how can I say this politely "less than truthful" .They say it's just politics....... I actually feel bad for you, IT'S GETTING EMBARRASING
Boston PD is famous for not
Boston PD is famous for not playing well with anybody. Every other dept out there offers unfilled details to neighboring depts or depts with jurisdiction within. Boston PD refuses, they let work go unfilled out of spite.
As far as the "delayed response from the Staties" I have a good idea what happened as I listen to the scanners and have heard this scenario play out enough: Boston PD gets a 911 call for something not their responsibility(we'll say the T since they love doing this to them), they dispatch their own officers and await their arrival and update from those officers before notifying the T cops of what's going on. If it's a really good call, they try to take it under the "What?! We were here first" rules under Finders Vs Keepers. If it's a bad call they want nothing to do with, they keep asking for an ETA so they can get out of there. My favorite was the time they intentionally sent the T cops on a wild goose chase away from Dudley station so they could swoop in there to the real location and take a gun off someone on a bus....they kept that one, naturally. In my opinion there's no room for games like this when it comes to public safety, stats/egos/money grubbing be damned.
When was the Dudley incident?
Because I've been following the cops relatively closely on scanner for a couple years now, and BPD has always deferred to the T cops on T property unless somebody's lying there bleeding out or something and it's going to take TPD awhile to get there.
The Dudley incident was
The Dudley incident was probably 3 or 4 years ago. it doesn't just play out on the air. I know a few TPD guys and they say the same thing. They show up to something that BPD knew about first and they can't help but ask, "Just how damned long ago did this happen?!" Because the notification delay is painfully obvious.
Yeah
I've always heard it go down like this:
1. BPD dispatch gets call
2. BPD pings transit police on BAPERN central channel
3. Call acknowledged
4. Transit pd dispatch calls assigned unit(s)
Is being horrifically rude
Is being horrifically rude and condescending a course in the State PD Academy? Because that's what they seem to do best.
Give me BPD any time of day, any day of the week.
And it looks like that poster
And it looks like that poster earned an A in said course. Also, patrol the highways well? Excuse me while I laugh my ass off while a thousand cars cruise by on the pike at 80 mph.
I don't think he is saying they aren't well trained LEO's
He is saying the way the state police is set up, they cannot handle the amount of service calls that a municipal department is set up to handle. The state police has one of the best crime scene units out there, and they have computer fraud guys that are probably better than and federal agency could come up with. As you point out, they have some of the best LEO's in the state.
But the troopers don't handle these incidents when they happen on residences or businesses on parkways, why should they do then in the seaport? They are short staffed as well, and you probably know it. How many troopers are assigned (working) per barracks on a holiday night? They sometimes run at the bare minimum (2 troopers) and they often share a supervisor spread over the entire half of Eastern MA.
If the State wants to commit to a barracks (and the 10 million bucks that would probably fund a barracks that would serve a place like the Seaport), I don't think anyone would object.
Battle of the Beaches
The annual battle for Carson beach will have a new twist when hundreds of teenagers break up fistfights between MSP and BPD over jurisdiction on the beach.
STATIES
Let them do what they do best."over entitled storm troopers harassing people at Logan because they can" let the BPD do the real work.
15 minutes for Staties to show for a bomb threat???
15 minutes for Staties to show for a bomb threat in South Boston? And the State Police have barracks in Southie. What a fantastically efficient organization.
take a trip down seaport blvd
take a trip down seaport blvd sometime - valet parkers taking up half the road (in the bike lanes, and the right most travel lanes - staties sleeping in their cars blocking both bike lane and half the road out in front of the world trade center... if BPD has jurisdiction, I'm sure the massport and state police will have to actually do some work around there.